I have been using FBB amateur radio software since
early nineties. It was the time of DOS operating
system, so most of us, system administrators (or, so
called system operators - sysop's), used various
packet radio server software for DOS.
Versions of FBB packet radio BBS server
software for DOS, today are known as "DosFBB".

I still administer one DosFBB database in the SRV
(Amateur Radio Union of Vojvodina, a part of SRJ).
It is DosFBB v7.00g23 that runs on a 486DX computer
with 16 MB of RAM and Hercules b/w graphics. Since
December 1999, it runs without any re-boot (excepting
some power failures). Before that, it was a bit
tricky to set up all memory management properly, in
order to avoid "frozen" system. Although this server
runs under DOS, its "radio clients" don't depend
on that. In fact, users of that DosFBB might run
their client software under DOS, Windows, Linux
or any other operating system that offer amateur
packet radio abilities.

I have also used DosFBB v5.15c on a 286/12 box at home.
Five years ago, when I got better box, Pentium I at 166 MHz with
32 MB of RAM and VGA color graphics, I switched to a Windows
version of FBB ("WinFBB"). Author of the software, a radio amateur
from France, Jean-Paul F6FBB, has made many versions of WinFBB,
including 16 bit variant for Windows 3.x and Windows 9x as well as
32 bit variant for Windows NT. I have run both variants until now
(at the moment it is 16 bit WinFBB v7.00g25 that runs great under
Windows NT 4.0).

Update: In late 1999, I upgraded my system to
Celeron 400 MHz, added more 64 MB of RAM and
switched to bigger hard disk that will have enough room
to install Linux and try LinFBB ...

Update: Since Spring 2001, I run WinFBB v7.00i
(17 March 2001) under Windows 2000 Professional.

The main
difference between DosFBB and WinFBB is that the
second one offers you to do other jobs with your
computer, while FBB is running as just any other
application. Besides that, it is always nice to
copy some text from another application (for example,
from an Internet email) and to paste it into a
packet radio message, or vice versa.

Update: In July 2001, I added more 128 MB of RAM
so my home system is very confortable now.

Finally, you should be aware what I want to
have here:

1. WinFBB when I run Windows.
2. LinFBB when I run Linux. It should be an
Xwindow application that may be
started/stopped similarly to WinFBB.
That's why X11 LinFBB package is used.
3. LinFBB when I run Linux, but as a daemon
that runs in the background. In addition,
an interface for a local user (myself)
is needed, as well as an interface to
monitor the radio channel.
4. All three versions must be capable to
share the same configuration files, i.e.
to be able, for example, to begin a new
session from the exact position where the
other version has finished its own last
session.
5. I am not an expert in Linux, so I am
only able to install "factory-made"
packages for Linux (just like to install
self executing software packages under
Windows). I mean of RPM packages. So, there
are no source (re)compilations here at the
moment, but in the future we will see :-)